The Waldesians Firm and Faithful Alpine Fighters for the Faith

1. by Dr Peter Hammond

3. Peter Waldo was a wealthy
merchant, well respected and
a man of influence, in the
community of Lyons.
Firm and
Faithful Alpine
Fighters for the
Faith

4. One evening, while entertaining friends at his home, one of them
suffered a sudden seizure and died. This incident so shook
Waldo that he began to seriously think of his soul and eternity
beyond the grave.

5. He began to regularly attend church services, but was not
satisfied with the superficial rituals in Latin.

6. He employed two priests to
come to his house to
translate the Gospels of
Christ into French.
Waldo was most excited as
he read, meditated on and
carefully studied the Words
of Christ.
Yet, instead of comfort and
peace, he found conviction
and challenge.
Studying
the
Scriptures

7. He saw himself as the foolish rich man who was laying up
treasures on earth, but was spiritually poor towards God. Again
and again he read the Words of Christ: “Take heed and beware
of covetousness, for the abundance of a man’s life consisteth
not in those things which he possesseth” Luke 12:15.

8. He determined to obey the
command of Christ to the rich
man recorded in Mark 10:22:
“If you wish to be perfect,
sell what you have and
follow Me.”
This Waldo saw as the
Gospel resolution to his
personal crisis.
A
Determination
to Follow
Christ

9. He determined to follow this exhortation of Christ literally.
He gave all of his possessions to the poor in his community as
restitution for his former business practices.
He denied himself and followed Christ as a poor man.

10. As Waldo’s friends, family and neighbours thought him insane,
he replied to them: “My friends and fellow citizens,
I am not out of my mind as some of you think.

11. I have avenged myself on
these my enemies, who
kept me in such slavery,
that I cared more for money
than for God and served
more willingly the creature
rather than the Creator.”

12. After Waldo had finished distributing all of his property and
possessions, he found many of the poor standing by his side, not
content with mere existence, but desiring to live as true Christians,
even as Waldo was demonstrating and proclaiming.

13. After receiving a call from the pope’s representative to clarify his
position and the intentions of his new movement, Waldo declared:

14. “We have decided to live by
the Words of the Gospel,
especially that of the
sermon on the Mount and
the Commandments, that is,
to live in poverty, without
concern for tomorrow.
But we hold that also those
who continue to live their
lives in the world doing
good will be saved.”

15. Waldo did not intend to separate from the Catholic Church, but
rather to work for its reformation from within. It also was not his
intention to start a new church. From the beginning the
Waldensians described themselves only as: “The poor.”

16. Vows of poverty in the Middle Ages were not unusual. There were
numerous monastic movements, which had done that, such as
The Franciscans of Francis of Assisi.

17. For this purpose they
emphasised the
importance of hearing
and understanding the
Word of God, the Bible.
It was from the
Scriptures that men and
women could know
Christ as the focus of
their Faith.
A Bible Study
Movement

18. They chose to live
in voluntary poverty
and sought to be faithful
in proclaiming the Gospel
in public.
This greatly offended the
religious leaders of their time
and brought the wrath of the
Catholic church upon them.

19. The archbishop of Lyons attempted to stop Waldo from preaching.
Public preaching, according to the Catholic theologians, was
reserved for the clergy alone. According to Catholic belief and
practice at that time, Waldo, the merchant, not being ordained,
had no right to preach.
Pressure Begins to Build

20. This Waldo challenged: “Who are the real successors of the
Apostles? Not necessarily those who are ordained, but rather
those who respond to the Lord’s call and live like the Apostles of
old.

21. What makes one a true heir to the Apostles is not ecclesiastical
ordination, but faithfulness to the Word of God. The authority to
preach God’s Word does not come through any church
organisation, but from Christ Himself.”

22. As a result, Waldo was severely threatened by the archbishop of
Lyon. The archbishop ordered him to cease his preaching. To
this Waldo responded: “It is better to obey God than man.”
A Decisive Challenge

23. For this bold defiance, quoting the words of the Apostle Peter in
Acts 4:19, his followers began to call him Peter Waldo.

24. The archbishop
excommunicated
Waldo and had him
banished from the city.
With great zeal, Peter
Waldo and his followers
scattered the Gospel
seed throughout
Northern Italy, Southern
France, Switzerland,
Austria and Germany.
Persecution
Unleashed

25. The Council of Verona pronounced fearsome anathemas upon the
poor men of Lyons who presumed to preach the Gospel without
ordination and to dare to translate the Scriptures from Latin into
the vernacular.

26. As a result, the Waldensians were hunted down by agents of the
Inquisition and many thousands were imprisoned, tortured and put
to death.

27. At first the Waldensians were pacifists, rejecting any form of
violence, even in self-defense. They also refused to take oaths.
Resistance Grows

28. However, in time, other generations of Waldensians grew to be
resourceful soldiers, tenacious fighters and innovative military
strategists, defeating Catholic armies and securing religious
freedom for their beleaguered families in the Alps of Piedmont.

29. Some of the Waldensian precepts for living in the world
included:
We must not love the world.
We must, if possible, live at peace with men.
We must shun evil company.

30. We must not avenge ourselves.
We must love our enemies.
We must possess our souls in patience.
We must not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.

31. Some of the Waldensian precepts for personal holiness
included:
We shall not serve the lusts of the flesh.
We shall govern worldly thoughts.
We shall mortify our members.

32. We shall shun idleness.
We shall practice works of mercy.
We shall live in faith and morality.
We shall fight against lusts.

33. We shall speak to one another of the Will of God.
We shall diligently examine our consciences.
We shall purify, improve and compose the spirit and mind.

34. Despite centuries of relentless and vicious, persecution and harsh
oppression, the Waldensians not only managed to survive, but to
expand, always attracting new followers and managing to
proclaim the Gospel in new areas.
Resilience Under Fire and Sword

35. Peter Waldo grasped the great Reformation principles of the
supreme authority of Holy Scripture and salvation by grace
through faith. He lifted up the principle that Christ’s Law must be
supreme.
Reformation Revelations

36. He recognised that
the churches had
become unfaithful
to God’s Law and to
the Gospel of
Christ.
In their worldly
quest for temporal
riches and power,
the church had long
since abandoned
the humility of
Christ and the
poverty of the
Apostles.
By compromising
with the world
it had lost its
spiritual power.

37. But the Waldensians did not seek to be separatists, but to purify
the church from within. From the very beginning of this
movement, the Waldensians have always been known as
distributors of the Scriptures and Christian literature.
Evangelists

38. As a result, their followers
were found as far afield
as the Danube River in
Austria, in Northern
Germany and in Bohemia
where their teachings and
example helped inspire the
great Bohemian professor
and Reformer Jan Hus.

39. Some of the most effective
Waldensian evangelists were
salesmen, merchants who
travelled from town to town
selling fabrics, clothing,
jewelry, artifacts and alluding
to more precious goods in
their possession to jewels of
inestimable value, even
The Pearl of Great Price
– the Gospel of Jesus.
Traveling
Salesmen

40. In German, the Waldensians were called: “Apostles.” The Polish
described them as: “Men who tell the truth.” The Waldensians
became known as those who proclaimed the Bible as the only rule
for faith and conduct.
Gospel Simplicity

41. They rejected the papacy, purgatory, indulgences, the mass and
other forms of superstition, as unBiblical. They rejected religious
formalism in favour of Gospel simplicity.

42. They promoted Christ-centered worship, Bible reading, faithful
prayer and Scriptural preaching as the responsibility of all
believers.

43. The Council of Valencia (1229) forbad men who were not priests
to read the Bible, whether in Latin, or in the vernacular. The Bible
itself was placed on The Index of Forbidden Books.
Tribulation

44. A savage wave of persecution rose up against the Waldensians.
The Inquisition resorted to a murderous campaign which tortured
and slaughtered thousands of these faithful Bible believers.

45. Early in the Reformation, French Reformer, Guillaume Farel,
travelled across the Alps and recruited the Waldensians into the
mainstream of the Reformation.
Protestant Allies

46. The persecution of the Waldensians intensified in the 17th Century
and in 1655, Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, declared
a Solemn Fast on behalf of the suffering Waldensian believers.

47. The Protector threatened to send
the English Navy to the
Mediterranean to strike a blow
on behalf of the Protestant cause
and threatened military
intervention unless the
persecution ceased.

48. Oliver Cromwell’s
secretary,
John Milton,
wrote a famous
sonnet on the
Massacres at
Piedmont and
Cromwell himself
headed a campaign
to raise support for
the Waldensians
with a personal gift of
2,000 pounds.

49. He urged their cause so whole-heartedly that over half a million
pounds was donated for the suffering Waldensians.

50. Cromwell’s vigorous intercession and threat of mobilising English
naval and military action, brought the persecution of the
Waldensians to a close.

51. The Waldensians survive to this day, the oldest Evangelical
church, with a heritage of over 800 years of faithful proclamation
of the Gospel and firm resistance against tyranny.

52. “To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the
Tree of Life.” Revelation 2:7

53. “To him who
overcomes, I will
give the right to eat
from the Tree of
Life.” Revelation 2:7

56. Dr Peter Hammond
Reformation Society
P.O. Box 74
Newlands, 7725
Cape Town, South Africa
Tel: (021) 689 4480
Fax: (021) 685 5884
Email: info@ReformationSA.org
Website: www.ReformationSA.org